Dogs v Carlton practice match

[Bulldog Revolution]

Re: Dogs v Carlton practice match

Enjoyed watching the game with GVG

And Yep agree with all of the positives and negatives

Welsh's first half was top notch, kicked 3 set up 2, led well, took a great one on one contested mark 20 out, and converted as he always does. Minson showed good signs.

Not sure Tiller will play from round 1 but he looks to have done everything in his power to put his name in front of the selectors and looks set for his best year at the club wherever he is selected.

Josh Hill was good on a wing, kicking 2, perhaps should have kicked 3 had he not missed a 35 metre wide open running shot in the last quarter, covers the ground well and contested very well in the air, attempted one screamer that he gave away the free kick on, and took one nice flyer.

Guy Okeefe didn't get a whole lot of it, but very much looked the part. I missed all of the 07 pre season so dont know but I wonder if he is at the same stage as Harbrow last year? Perhaps others can comment.

West's best game of the preseason, Cooney was excellent, Boyd comfortable as a midfielder or as a rebounding defender

[Scorlibo]

Re: Dogs v Carlton practice match

For those who were there, how did Jarrad Grant go? And Callan Ward?

[Bulldog Revolution]

Re: Dogs v Carlton practice match

For those who were there, how did Jarrad Grant go? And Callan Ward?

Neither played, saw Ward with Reid and Ray walking across the ground after the game, did not see Grant

[Scorlibo]

Re: Dogs v Carlton practice match

Neither played, saw Ward with Reid and Ray walking across the ground after the game, did not see Grant

Thanks.

[Sockeye Salmon]

Re: Dogs v Carlton practice match

I didn't think Aker was our best player today, he was OK but not great. Had a really good first quarter.

For mine Matthew Boyd was our best player. He spent the entire 3rd quarter and half the last quarter on the bench and still got 20+ possies.

West was great in the last quarter especially, more of what we're been seeing for the past 14 years from Scooter.

I thought Griffen was better than some others have given him credit for, very encouraging performance. Conversly, I didn't think Cooney had much of a game.

Hudson was good at the clearances early, exactly what you would expect from him really. He doesn't do much around the ground but he did take 2 contested marks from long kick outs. Street adds nothing. Street spent a short spell at FF and twice had opportunities against a much smaller opponent and couldn't take marks he should have. Took one uncontested mark and then missed from 30m out right in front.

Minson and Welsh were OK. Welsh was fabulous in the first but he does go missing for big chunks of games. Johnson has looked lost with Minson and Welsh around, very little impact from Johnson at all today. Higgins started well but copped a solid shepherd from Betts that looked like it hurt Higgins shoulder. He came back on but wasn't anywhere near as damaging. Promising, though.

Hargrave was excellent (except for the late shot, I thought he got reported), Morris got himself torn a new one by Fevola. Fev kicked 4 goals and missed more than that again.

Mcdougall was OK. He's better than most people think. He still hesitates sometimes when he should attack the ball harder, but that's Mcdougall and he'll never change. Tiller played on Edwards and got beaten on the lead three times for three goals. For the most part was pretty good, his kicking is better than I realised.

Addison and Callen won't make it. Addison's kicking is dreadful, Callen can't play.

Gilbee hardly spent any time on the ground at all. Would have been lucky to have played much more than a quarter.

Hill started poorly. A few skill errors - fumbles and miskicks - but his 2nd half was good. He'll take mark of the year one day but will give away 20 frees trying before he does.

Murphy was totally out of sorts and had a day he'd rather forget. Eagleton was even worse, an absolute shocker.

Hahn was poor as well. He doesn't get it enough and when he does his skills aren't good enough to make the opposition pay. Where do you play him? He can't go back, he's not quick enough yet adds little to the forward line. I'm very worried about Mitch's future. I think he'll spend time at Willi this year.

O'Keefe had little gametime and I only remember him getting one handball. Edit: I do remember O'Keefe getting at least two kicks because they were both right-footers and we commented on it.

[BulldogBelle]

Re: Dogs v Carlton practice match

Thanks to all of you, I said all of you ...(to quote the words of Mark Thompson) for the great reports you have all presented.

[BulldogBelle]

Re: Dogs v Carlton practice match

Thanks for all the effort guys.

Good read.

[The Underdog]

Re: Dogs v Carlton practice match

I concur, thanks to all for the reports.

[Missing Dog]

Re: Dogs v Carlton practice match

ditto on reports. thanks all.

[Raw Toast]

Re: Dogs v Carlton practice match

Great report SS, and ta to all the others who let us know what happened as well.

Where was Callan played? The reports we've had on him from Eade seemed to indicate his training's been fairly impressive, but he's done nothing of note in the pre-season matches. Maybe he needs to play for Willi and just try and get his confidence up. I don't think he has the footy brain and awareness to make it as a smallish defender, but I'm sure we'll have spaces available at some stage for a tough nut in the midfield.

I'm not giving up on Addison yet, but this is obviously a key year for him. Hahn does sound a worry. Almost want him to play as a tagger and get led to the ball, but doubt he has the engine for this. I suspect that Minson going forward isn't helping Hahn either. Still he's another who has apparently impressed with his preseason so I'll wait and see what happens when the real thing starts.

Glad to hear that Tiller showed some signs. He's looked keen as mustard the few times I've seen him, and gives the sense that he won't fail for lack of effort which is good.

Who did Doogs play on? With Everitt and Williams under a cloud he's actually pretty important to us as a defensive option. Can't see him missing round 1, though I reckon he'll get an unfair share of the blame if we're beaten.

[GVGjr]

Re: Dogs v Carlton practice match

Callan mainly played back but did venture up forward at one stage. He just isn't clean enough with his skills.

I would stick with Addison but trying to find a set position is the hard thing. Yes there is questions over his kicking skills and be is quick, runs hard and has a crack physically so I'd give him some more time.

Doogs had a few opponents like Cam Cloke and while he coughed up a goal or two his rebound and kicking from defense wasn't bad.

Both teams flooded a fair bit yesterday but I thought that our tackling improved from last season especially in defense. Even though Morris was well beaten some of his 2nd and 3rd efforts were terrific.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Dogs v Carlton practice match

Hi all,

Great to read others' view of the game, was there till halfway through the third quarter and these are some of my notes (with Sheahan's caveat of 'this is only my opinion'):

- Great day for footy... watching the crowd get on the oval and kick around at half-time was a joy.
- 'MC Labour Park' is a very nice ground for the footy, apart from the disgustingly dirty corridors. Food and drink were pretty expensive.

- Westy dominated at clearances and looked twice as fast and sharp as he did last week -- which makes sense with an eye on his training cycle. Some of his work was so sharp and clean it was blink-and-miss-it kind of stuff. Brilliant. (If Scotty played in a higher profile side over his career he would have long ago been compared to Greg Williams, who made Sheahan's top 10).

- Aker moved really, really well. His disposals were a mixed bag -- some brilliantly weighted passes to a leading player, other hopeful punts to a contest -- but got his hand on it a lot and picked up the from the ground very cleanly, a sign of a class player. Passes into a crowded forward line were the biggest concern. However, clearly a different/markedly improved player to last year.

- Griff looked very impressive the few times he got his hands on it -- the goal that others have already spoken of was sheer class.

- Callan looked an honest trier, clearly outclassed on the lead and not quite up to standing top forwards but very good value I thought as he always gave nothing but the best effort. A depth player, as others have pointed out, but there's no shame in it if this represents the bottom of our list.

- Hill was very classy.. may be the surprise of the year. Still very skinny but moves silkily.

- Eags made two major clangers that I remember from no pressure whatsover but he was certainly pushing the pace (as he does) when he got the ball.

- Some have mentioned that Johnno wasn't very good but I thought that he totally outclassed every opponent he played on. Kicked goals at will when up forward in first quarter, then outran and outmarked every player he played on when playing more in the midfield. Gave the team a lot of run. Made quite a few mistakes too, which is something we've come to hate about Johnno's game, but certainly added far more positives than negatives to the team. One passage of play especially was classic Johnno. A hopeful punt was coming in at the top of a relatively empty square and there is nobody in sight except two Carlton defenders and Johnno who is a mile away and running at an angle away from the ball. Of course, this is just to give himself room to make a late run at the ball and spoil, which he does with brilliant athleticism and someone scores a goal off the crumbs. Totally outnumbered against two defenders who are more than a head taller than him and the result is a goal to the Dogs. Class.

- Hudson is a huge plus to the team.

- McDougall provides a good contest but simply hoofs his clearances. Quality of disposal from the defence -- apart from Lindsay, who had a quiet game anyway -- was a problem all game.

- Farran and Andrejs walked right by in front of me and stopped to chat (I was sitting right in front of Rocket's coaches' box). Both were limping with casts/braces on their ankle/knee respectively. Farran definitely looks a heck of a lot bigger close up than he did last year.


By the by, Juddy's touches were by and large efficient but he certainly is still some way from his best -- much slower and kicks are less penetrating than they used to be, but he's still a ball magnet.

[LostDoggy]

Re: Dogs v Carlton practice match

Oh, and Big Will was good value to watch up forward. It was good to be able to directly compare someone like Fev to Big Will, and apart from their frames (Will is slightly bigger, if anything), there is little comparison. Fev is quicker and far more mobile and takes a lot of marks on the lead (and is a reasonable contested mark), but they both hoof it a long way. Fev's kicking wasn't great yesterday, but there was a set shot that was almost in identical positions that Fev kicked well but missed, and Will shanked but flew through at post height. Just the fact that there's someone like Will up forward though means that, at the bare minimum, there's one less key defender opponents have for Welsh and Johnno, which can only be a good thing.

[katemeehan]

Re: Dogs v Carlton practice match

I'm not sure if Wight and Murphy were injured. We didn't see Wight on the ground after Q time and Murphy wasn't sighted in the last.

Murphy came off late in the 3rd (I think) and when into the rooms. Came out during the 4th in the after-game gear and just sat on the bench. Wight was standing in the race in his trackies for a fair bit of the 4th.
Had seats a few metres from the bench, on the fence. They set up the bike RIGHT in front so for plenty of the time I could only see Mitch Hahns backside...

Closest Ive ever been to them at an actual game, and I gotta say Jonno was a scary sight as they all walked down into the rooms! His huge smile can be reversed pretty severly

Callan Ward was on my tram on the way home too!

[Bornadog]

Re: Dogs v Carlton practice match

Oh, and Big Will was good value to watch up forward. It was good to be able to directly compare someone like Fev to Big Will, and apart from their frames (Will is slightly bigger, if anything), there is little comparison. .

Fev is only 191 cm but weights around 100kg